The History of First-Person Shooters: Part 3

1998-2000. Epic and Valve hit the scene, online multiplayer explodes and important sub-genres begin to establish themselves.

By Kristan Reed, October 8, 2009


Alien Vs Predator. They appear to be coming out of the goddamn walls.

Alien Vs Predator. They appear to be coming out of the goddamn walls.

Away from the single player scene, the genre was rapidly fragmenting and evolving in the online realm. Starsiege: Tribes emerged in November 1998 to warm acclaim. It was one of the first shooters to focus entirely on the online component, with an impressive 40 maps and five game types.


System Shock 2. This dude scared the crap out of my juvenile self.

System Shock 2. This dude scared the crap out of my youthful self.

Epic Games’ decision to split its attention between single and multiplayer FPS titles certainly paid off with the release of the awesome Unreal Tournament. Marrying the astonishing visuals of the Unreal engine with a slick interpretation of multiplayer, it scooped near perfect scores from PC reviewers across the board. Offline players were just as well catered for, with six exceptional game modes and challenging AI bots.


Unreal Tournament. See those shell casings fly.

Unreal Tournament. See those shell casings fly.

id Software released its own multiplayer shooter, Quake 3 Arena, just ten days after Unreal Tournament. Such was the fervent interest in the code wars raging between id and Epic, that there was almost as much debate over which game was most impressive technically as the gameplay itself (opinions remain divided to this day). Either way, gamers had plenty to crow about: UT and Q3A were excellent, aggressively refined products from developers at their peak. Unsurprisingly, both have stood the test of time remarkably well.


0 Responses to “The History of First-Person Shooters: Part 3”

  1. Genki says:

    Quake 3 was better than UT…which is why it still gets played a decade later.

    UT died on it’s ass.

    Q3 continued to be played throughout worldwide competitions “professionally”.

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